The way back: University Drive bridge impacting local businesses

Natalie Allison Janicello

Sunday

Aug 18, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 18, 2013 at 9:52 PM

ELON — As drivers continue adjusting to a new traffic pattern on the University Drive overpass, some businesses on Haggard Avenue are hoping passersby find their way back to places they once patronized.

The bridge, which the North Carolina Department of Transportation began constructing in November 2010 and initially opened to drivers in November 2012, spans from Cook Road over N.C. 100/Haggard Avenue to make University Drive a continuous stretch and keep drivers from having to cross the railroad tracks. Before the overpass was constructed, University Drive in Elon was interrupted by Cook Road and N.C. 100, which drivers had to use before continuing onto the rest of University Drive.

Mary Boyce, manager of Anna Maria’s Pizzeria, said the opening of the overpass has cut the restaurant’s business in half.

“We had worried about (the bridge) from the start,” Boyce said. “Drivers used to see us before they saw anything else,” noting that Cook Road ran directly beside the Phoenix Station shopping center where the restaurant is located. Now that the overpass requires vehicles to go further down University Drive and take an exit to loop back around to N.C. 100, fewer cars are stopping to eat at Anna Maria’s, she said.

Piedmont Fish and Reptile, which was located in the same strip, closed its retail store in March, though the shop’s owner couldn’t be reached for more details. Boyce said she wanted to put up signs around the overpass to let drivers know how to find Anna Maria’s, but the restaurant wasn’t allowed to put signs in the public right-of-way.

Down the street from the overpass, secondhand clothing store Mad Stylz is closing its doors at Timberline Station shopping center. Though the owners were unavailable for comment on the closing, the store’s Facebook page cites the opening of the overpass as a factor in the business’s closing.

“We had no idea that the opening of the new bridge that the state put in was going to affect our business to the extent that it has,” reads an announcement on the Facebook page.

Sandy’s Steaks and Subs, also located on Haggard Avenue, is temporarily closed while owner Greg Saldanha determines how to increase traffic and proceed with the business, which has been open for 25 years, he said.

“That new bridge killed all the business,” Saldanha said, adding that Sandy’s hopes to reopen by the time Elon University students start back their classes. Saldanha said he tried putting up signs near the exit on the overpass and by the Marathon gas station on Haggard Avenue, but it didn’t do much to increase traffic. He said people visiting Elon from out of town might follow the signs to locate a place to eat, but locals need a convenient way to get to his business.

“Signs might help some people who are from out of town, but out-of-town people come, have lunch and then disappear,” he said.

Alhough some business owners and drivers say the overpass is more of a hassle than a convenience, the project has been on the books for more than 40 years, said Mayor Jerry Tolley.

“(The project) was first a line on a map in 1972,” he said, referring to NCDOT’s initial plans to build a north/south corridor through Cook Road to U.S. 70.

An August 1992 resolution from the town of Elon College indicates an underpass would be built “at the intersection of Cook Road and the Southern Railroad crossing,” though it was not clear if specific plans for the underpass had been developed before then.

In February 1997, the town approved a resolution to ensure NCDOT constructed an overpass rather than an underpass, which Tolley said came after NCDOT advised the town the area’s topography wasn’t conducive to an underpass.

Mike Mills, of NCDOT Division 7, said the purpose of the overpass is to keep vehicles from directly crossing the railroad tracks, which is a safety hazard.

“We try to eliminate the at-grade crossings at railroads,” Mills said. “It’s got to be very, very, very unique that we don’t cross over or under a railroad with a DOT road. That’s what we do now.”

Multiple railroad crossings have already been closed in the town of Elon, including those at Antioch and Holt avenues. Mills said the crossing at Antioch was closed in 2003, and the railroad crossing at Holt was also closed in the early 2000s, though he wasn’t sure the exact year.

Mills said NCDOT would look into options for temporary signs to inform drivers that dining options were located off the overpass’s exit. Boyce said she had asked about signs advertising food and gas, similar to those found on interstates, but was told the road didn’t qualify for that type of sign.

Mills said NCDOT has to restrict the types of signs that can be placed in that area.

“Normally, the only signs that are approved on the right-of-way are for speed limits and stop signs,” Mills said. “We do have a logo program, but that only qualifies for controlled access facilities.”

Mills described a controlled access facility as a road where there are no driveways, with the only access points being roads controlled by an interchange.

Tolley said the project was completely NCDOT’s. The town approved plans for the road construction years ago before many of the current N.C. 100 businesses existed.

“Those businesses either knew or should have known that the overpass was going to be there,” he said. “It’s just an unfortunate situation for them. If it was different — I wish it could be. I’m just not sure it could.”

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